Recent shows bucking the trend include an exhibit opening Friday at the Philip Slein Gallery in the Central West End. African-American-themed work from private St. Louis homes comprises “Other Ways, Other Times: Influences of African-American Tradition from St. Louis Collections.”

Adrienne Davis contributed four pieces. She feels it’s important for St. Louis to view to these works, especially now. Davis noted that media have long been an essential part of moving the black struggle forward, from the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in 1852 to images of police brutality televised during the 1950s and '60s.

“The pictures of the fire hoses and dogs and Emmett Till’s open casket really not only transformed a lot of thoughtful people in U.S. but also all over world,” Davis said.

“Other Ways” was originally envisioned as a small exhibit. A collaboration by Slein, gallery owner Jim Schmidt and World Chess Hall of Fame director Susan Barrett, the show is an extension to the HOF’s current “Living Like Kings” display.

Suddenly, what began as a request to only a handful of collectors generated a massive response. “Word got around and people starting calling saying, ‘I want to do this, too,’” Barrett said.

Sixty works of art are now part of the diverse “Other Ways” exhibit. “It got so big that some collectors wanted to be in it but there’s just not enough room,” Barrett noted.

Philip Slein wants people to know that the show is not about the events of Ferguson or the more recent police shooting in the Shaw neighborhood of South St. Louis. But the shootings and subsequent cries for justice have affected the exhibit. "It's taken on a much more powerful significance,” Slein said.

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Philip Slein talks with Nancy Fowler about the exhibition, including why he sometimes can’t look away from the show’s haunting, signature photograph of a young black man by the artist Dawoud Bey.

It also displays a Kara Walker painting that may surprise exhibit-goers. Walker is known for her black cut-paper silhouettes that speak to race, gender, sexuality violence and identity. But her painting in the "Other Ways" show makes a much softer statement, according to Jim Schmidt

“It’s a small piece, a watercolor. It’s very sweet and touching,” Schmidt said.

‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ and More

Another current local exhibition, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” directly responds to Michael Brown's death. Adrienne Davis noted how quickly the founder of the Alliance of Black Gallery Owners organized the show via social media. It opened last week in 14 venues.

“Freida Wheaton put together an amazing project,” Davis said.

While the work in "Hands Up" has a social-justice focus, Davis pointed out that's not the case with every piece of African-American work.

“Not all black art takes up these issues,” Davis said. “But overwhelmingly, it does. And it’s so important right now.”

The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” exhibit will open Oct. 17 and 18 in more than a dozen galleries — and one entire city.

The Ferguson Public Library and the city of Ferguson as a whole are listed among the exhibition spaces. That’s because the burned-out QuikTrip and the monuments to Michael Brown can also be seen as living works of art, according to curator Freida Wheaton.

For the next six months chess and hip-hop will live under the same roof here in St. Louis. "Living Like Kings: The Collision of Chess and Hip Hop Culture" is an ever-evolving exhibit examining the relationship between the two art forms. Hip-Hop Chess Federation founder Adisa Banjoko, 44, thinks hip-hop and chess share a common noble truth.

“The spirit of competition in hip-hop and in chess is what helps us figure out who we are,” Banjoko said.